Effect of wettability on surface morphologies and optical properties of Ag thin films grown on glass and polymer substrates by thermal evaporation

A series of Ag films with different thicknesses were deposited on BK-7 glass, PET and PC substrates under identical conditions by thermal evaporation. The effect of the wettability on the morphology and optical properties of Ag/glass and Ag/polymer films was studied by atomic force microscopy and spectrophotometry. The experimental results show that the wettability of Ag grains with polymer is stronger than with glass, which results in the aggregation of bigger grains in initial layer. During deposition the interaction of interlayer plays an important role for the formation of the surface morphology. The strong wettability activates the nonlinear optical properties of Ag grains grown on polymer substrates, which result in the strong absorbance in short wavelength. The effect of the bare substrate on the transmittance of Ag films is more obvious than the reflectance. With the increasing of the thickness, the effect of the wettability on the morphology and optical properties of Ag films decline. In this experiment when the thickness is above 50 nm, the effect almost vanished.